Anthony’s Italian Deli

Anthony’s Italian Deli has been Marco Saia’s second home since he was born. His mother, Marie, would keep him in the back of the deli while she cooked and served the crowd. “I would climb out of the playpen and fraternize with customers,” he joked.

Thirty-six years after opening, Marie, Marco, and his sister Margaret continue to operate Baton Rouge’s best little hole in the wall at the back of a strip mall on Florida near Sharp Road. The deli still serves the same menu, featuring their famous muffalettas, pressed sandwiches, and homemade spaghetti with house-made sausage. Flags with red, white, and green stripes, family photos, maps of Italy, and a collection of thirty years of restaurant reviews deck the walls; and shelves of imported Italian foods are stacked almost as high as the ceiling.

The dining area is both a remembrance of the Old Country and a living record of the family’s history in America. Anthony and Marie Saia settled in the United States almost fifty years ago. He was born in Sicily, and she hailed from a city north of Milan called Bergamo. They married and then took the voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. Neither spoke English but eventually learned the language by working various jobs before founding their deli in 1978.

For the most part, Anthony’s has remained unchanged. The original menu still hangs near a picture of the Pope. It is nearly identical to the current one except that the 1978 menu lists half a poboy at $1.95 while a muffaletta could be had for the tidy sum of $2. “I think about mixing things up from time to time, but I always go back to the original menu,” Marco said.

By 3 pm the lunch crowd had waned, and Marie had hung up her apron and returned home; but the smell of meatballs and red sauce still fills the air. Marco took a seat at one of the tables cloaked in red-and-white-checked vinyl for a short but much-needed break. “Remember, we agreed not to talk about dates,” he said, somewhat seriously. “I am not sure when the move will actually take place.”

For an establishment shrouded in tradition, Anthony’s is about to undergo major change. After construction is completed on a new building near the foot of Government Street, the deli will say farewell to its longtime South Baton Rouge home to become a Mid City resident.

Before Marco could even get comfortable, the phone rang. He answered, “Anthony’s.” There was a pause followed by “Yes, we are moving to Government Street. … I don’t know when. Thanks. Bye.” This type of phone call repeats itself three times during the interview. Marco estimated that he gets twenty calls a day about the move.

We settled in and started talking about Anthony’s signature sandwich: the muffaletta, which, I pointed out to him, I made sure to eat every time I came home to Baton Rouge from New York. “Our entire deli is structured around the muffaletta,” he said. Anthony’s olive salad is their homemade secret recipe. In addition to the standard olive mix that tops most muffalettas, a giardiniera mix—consisting of vinegar, onions, celery, carrots, and cauliflower—is added and then ground together in house. Meats are sourced locally when possible but also shipped in from New York. The cheeses are imported from Italy, but the key to the Anthony’s muffaletta is the bread. “We couldn’t make our own bread, so we taught our baker how to do it for us,” Marco said. “We also hot press our muffaletta along with our other sandwiches. No one else does that. It makes it really special.”

This emphasis on quality ingredients and quality control correlates with awards, five-star reviews, and, most recently, a Trip Advisor’s coveted Certificate of Excellence award for consistently achieving outstanding traveler reviews. “Nothing comes out of the kitchen unless we like it,” said Marco. “Perfection is the key.”

The phone rang again. Marco answered and started speaking Italian. Turning to me, he pointed to the receiver and mouthed, “My mom.” The conversation appeared to get heated, but then I realized the two of them were just planning for tomorrow. He hung up and explained, “Sometimes she fires me, but then I get rehired the next day.”

I laughed and asked how many times he’s gotten the boot. “I can’t even count them. One week she fired me every day,” he said. “Then she will call and ask me to stop on the way home and pick up vegetables. That’s just how we are. We are Italian.”

Anthony, Marco’s father and the deli’s namesake, leaves the management and its daily operations to the rest of the family. However, Anthony sprang into action in January when the deli was robbed of its meats and cheeses by a burglar, nicknamed "The Lasagna Looter" by the local media. “Anthony P.I. got involved and used his detective skills to find the truck and the apartment where the culprit was staying,” Marco said. “All of the food was stored in the culprit’s fridge. The cops called and said, ‘Come get your stuff.’ We don’t know what to do with it.”

Marco explained that locals on Florida Boulevard are broken up about the change of venue but realize that the new deli will only be about ten minutes away by car. He estimated that ninety percent of their business comes from regular customers. Quite a few have been coming since they first opened. “We are bad with names; but when they walk in, we know exactly what they eat," he said. “Many have been ordering the same thing for thirty-six years.”

The new building will be bigger; there will even be outdoor seating. But they will be “dishing out the exact same food.” All of the frames filled with photos, reviews, and other family memorabilia will proudly hang at the new location as well.

“This is what makes us. It is our history. We will even have the same tablecloths,” Marco said. The most important part of the deli will make the move as well: Marie will be ruling the roost as usual at the new location. Marco said, “My mother’s heart is too big to retire. She would miss the people too much.”